LOS ANGELES (AP) — Versatile actor Donald Sutherland, who has played everything from a Nazi spy to an aging astronaut, was honored Wednesday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His star was unveiled outside the Roosevelt Hotel next to son Kiefer Sutherland’s star.

The elder Sutherland joked that getting a star was better than a headstone at a cemetery.

“This marker I can actually come and visit,” Sutherland, 75, said. “I could get a chair and sit here, or a bucket and a mop and clean it, and make sure that people don’t step on it.”

Kiefer Sutherland wasn’t able to attend the ceremony because of work obligations in New York. He wrote a message that was read by Colin Farrell, his father’s co-star in the comedy “Horrible Bosses” due out later this year.

“I selfishly wanted to be there to simply tell you how proud I am to have you as my father and how even more proud I am to be your son,” Kiefer Sutherland wrote.

The career of Canadian-born Donald Sutherland has spanned nearly five decades and included appearances in the movies “The Dirty Dozen,” ”The Day of the Locust,” ”Ordinary People” and “Space Cowboys.”

He won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his role in the 1995 television crime drama “Citizen X” and another Golden Globe award for his portrayal of presidential adviser Clark Clifford in the 2002 television movie “Path to War.”

He appears in the thriller “The Mechanic” and the upcoming Roman epic “The Eagle.”